Obama not grasping the seriousness of the Foley murder, says … Chris Matthews?

posted at 9:21 am on August 21, 2014 by Ed Morrissey

Barack Obama’s statement on the beheading of James Foley got mixed reviews yesterday, but perhaps tellingly not on MSNBC’s Hardball. Neither Chris Matthews nor Huffington Post’s Howard Fineman appeared too impressed with the anodyne reference to “justice” in the context of the videotaped beheading of an American journalist, but Matthews sounded positively offended by Obama’s vague statement. Let’s just say that Matthews wasn’t feeling any tingles as he demanded that Obama take action rather than allow terrorists to attack Americans with “impunity!” (via Newsbusters):

MATTHEWS: I don’t know why he used the word ‘justice.’ It’s not appropriate here. This is an attack on our country, we have to react to it. This is a national, er, our country versus this group that has declared war on us.

FINEMAN: Well, Chris —

MATTHEWS: What’s justice mean in this con– I don’t know why the word’s used, like we’re going to go to the World Court with this?

FINEMAN: Well, especially since he had previously in that same statement basically depicted them as a, as killers who, cold-blooded killers who deserve no quarter.

MATTHEWS: They’re all in this!

FINEMAN: Yeah, I think he also said they don’t belong in the 21st century —

MATTHEWS: All the ISIL crowd belong —

FINEMAN: — or that they don’t belong in any century. But the question is, Chris, and some of our people at the Huffington Post have been looking into this, there’s a school of thought that says, ‘Obviously, this is exactly what ISIL wants.’ They want to engage us, they want us to attack. Their whole strategy, their whole theory is to push our buttons in a way that we commit —

MATTHEWS: Well, then we’re going to help them out.

FINEMAN: Well, that’s, that’s, that’s the concern, and that’s the conundrum [crosstalk] that the President has right now.

MATTHEWS: The American people — that’s what I’ve been saying, Andrea [Mitchell], for a long time now. No American president can survive if he lets Iran get nuclear weapons, and no American president can survive if he lets Americans be beheaded on international television with impunity. Impunity! He has to strike back, as an American, it’s in our soul!

Matthews may be thinking about two other hostage crises in our past in drawing that conclusion. There was a long stretch in the 1980s when Hezbollah, acting on orders from Iran, abducted Americans and held them for years. Ronald Reagan’s administration ended up trying to cut a secret deal to swap arms for the hostages and wound up dealing with the Iran-Contra scandal. Jimmy Carter had a much more severe hostage crisis with Iran directly, one that (like this one) included a failed military rescue attempt, and for which Iran suffered no penalties other than the economic sanctions. We’ve seen hostage crises corrode two American presidencies based on a lack of action, and neither of those involved videotaped beheadings and taunting, although Hezbollah did execute one hostage by hanging.

The U.S. military mission in Iraq is narrowly focused on helping displaced Iraqis by flying in humanitarian aid, and protecting U.S. interests in the country — not on targeting ISIS leadership.

That, says Morell, is not enough. He argues the relatively “small leadership” of the group must become the focus, along with reclaiming territory those leaders now control, and “that means capturing or killing them.”

Morell explains that under current White House policy in order to take lethal action against any individual terror suspect, that person must be a member of a named terrorist organization (ISIS meets this requirement), and they must pose a direct threat — and capture cannot be an option.

“I don’t know if they (Obama administration) have made that determination or not,” said Morell.

The former CIA insider says the only way to effectively combat ISIS, which has re-branded itself simply the “Islamic State,” is to bolster Iraq’s own military force — which literally ran away in many instances from the Sunni extremists as they spread from Syria into north and west Iraq earlier this summer, and to get better intelligence on the leaders’ movements.

Morell also rebuked the White House for leaking the rescue effort. The Obama administration seems ill prepared to deal with this in every conceivable way.

And it still irritates me this guy (the loser in the White House) has a lower golf handicap than I do. Of course I have a job and am expected to work, so I guess there’s that. I’d like to think if I were retired, I’d play that well also.

I don’t think Obama should have made any comment about it. You don’t want to give these people the satisfaction that their actions can make you react. Now he has to have a press conference after every beheading and there might be lots of them. They’ll say he surrendered if he doesn’t do this.

Awwww, has the dream died, Ting Ting? Not feeling so secure any longer?

Welcome to hell, population: All Of US. We’ll make room for you over here between the unemployed guy and the grieving Foley family, and you get a great view of the counter on the wall with the rapidly spinning numbers which keeps track of our national debt.

MATTHEWS: The American people — that’s what I’ve been saying, Andrea [Mitchell], for a long time now. No American president can survive if he lets Iran get nuclear weapons, and no American president can survive if he lets Americans be beheaded on international television with impunity. Impunity! He has to strike back, as an American, it’s in our soul!

Why would Obama strike back? Was there any retribution(other than against Republicans) over what happened in Benghazi? Has anything happened in the aftermath of that commercial airliner that was shot down?

Since the media’s blind reflex to protect Teh First Black Won is diminishing, its interesting to note the occasional moments of clarity among his most egregious sycophants.

Had this crisis with ISIS emerged early in Obama’s presidency, it is conceivable there would have been enough competent military and State Dept people still in positions of authority to help The Hapless craft a workable response.

Now, after 6 years, I’m afraid anyone even remotely close to advising the president has been replaced with ideological purists and political groupies.

The Administration has, literally, run all the adults out, staffed the White House with teenagers, locked the doors and quit answering the phone.

There is very little chance anything to do with war-making will end well for us at this time.

Honestly, I’m a little confused why people are making such a big deal about James Foley’s murder. The ISIL have killed thousands of civilians; many through means much more creative than beheading. Why all the attention on this one man?

I suppose media types are upset because Foley was one of them (a cooler, better looking version of them), but why should they suddenly expect the president to act differently?

What the muzzies need is a doomsday clock. That is something they would understand. Have a press conference and announce in exactly two weeks Mecca and Medina will be vaporized and will cease to exist. Call on the Arab countries to relocate everyone in the area as we know and they know they are powerless to resist. Let them know this is step one and other cities will be targeted and annihilated until the murderous death cult known as Islam renounces their stated goal of world domination.

Why is it that not only Matthews but all the media have suddenly gotten their collective shorts in a knot about what is happening in Iraq? Why are they just now showing alarm at a beheading?
OH! that’s right this time it’s one of the elite class that is a victim.
When it was just the plebiscite it didn’t call for much attention but now that a “journalist” is the victim they are all squawking and screaming.
They make me want to puke.

And it still irritates me this guy (the loser in the White House) has a lower golf handicap than I do. Of course I have a job and am expected to work, so I guess there’s that. I’d like to think if I were retired, I’d play that well also.

USNCVN on August 21, 2014 at 9:34 AM

Just be thankful you don’t have his mental handicap, which is why you hold a job that requires some semblance of skill.

This is different because our guys made an effort to rescue Foley, and the ISIS savages know it, they know we spent a crapload of money and risked our best soldiers to get him back.

They know that Dog Eater was directly involved in approving the rescue, that’s why they made the vid, not just to shock Americans but to rub it in the preznit’s face that they hacked the head from the guy Dog Eater tried to rescue.

The only reason Chrissie is having the vapors is that Foley was a reporter. Like him.

Matthews can see himself in that position, which boils down to letting his personal romancing of all things anti-American get him in over his head with savages. Unlike Foley, who was there to get the facts, Chrissie would be there fawning. And he’s just realized that his personal commitment to all things primitive and nihilistic would count for exactly squat with this bunch.

Incidentally, Chrissie blathering about what is and isn’t “American” hits some sort of high point for the bizarre. If we’re to blame for All Evil In The Universe, how can our “doing anything” make it any better?

Fineman sticks to the progressive line. There is nothing we can do that won’t “inflame the situation”. (Short of nuking Israel and then nuking ourselves, that is.) He doesn’t quite dare come out and say that Foley “had it coming” for being an American, but he’s clearly thinking exactly that.

If I want advice on strategy or tactics from a “journalist”, I’ll email Ralph Peters. I sure as hell won’t ask Matthews or Fineman.

And it still irritates me this guy (the loser in the White House) has a lower golf handicap than I do. Of course I have a job and am expected to work, so I guess there’s that. I’d like to think if I were retired, I’d play that well also.

USNCVN on August 21, 2014 at 9:34 AM

My golf game is a sad parody of the real thing, and we have more fun testing the performance limits of the golf carts than actually playing the game.

Take heart, probably everything else you do in life is done better than Dog Eater.

It’s in our soul, Chrissy, but it’s not in Obama’s. He is not American. And I’m not referring to his place of birth. Obama is not American in his sensibilities. He is the son of an America-hating mother and a Kenyan communist father. He grew up dreaming of becoming Prime Minister of Indonesia, not President of the United States. Obama spent most of his pre-presidency life marinating in a toxic stew of racist, pro-Muslim, anti-American propaganda. Yet whenever anyone suggested that a person of Obama’s background might not be the best person to become President of the United States (and Commander-in-Chief of our military forces), we were derided as racists and xenophobes and “birther” kooks.

Tell Bishop that when coolrepublica says redneck, he means poor white trash, like me, or shorebilly if you prefer.

Bmore on August 21, 2014 at 9:54 AM

According to coolrepublica, we actually let her into our country legally, if that alone doesn’t tell you how screwed up our immigration policy is, then nothing will. She should crawl back to whatever hellhole she came from.

Great job Tingles! Glad to see that you finally appreciate the threat that Islam poses to the world. Just think, if you and the rest of the left wing nut jobs had this revelation a few years ago, maybe we would still have a presence in Iraq, and would have been in a position to put a stop to the ISIS threat before it even started.

Agreed with Matthews. The “law enforcement” language is disturbing, both here and in the UK. They keep calling the Brit jihadist a murderer, as if by locating this one guy will neutralize the threat. Obviously, dangerously WRONG. Matthews has it right. This isn’t about one reporter, it’s about a totalitarian group which won’t rest until it’s eradicated entirely, here and abroad.

An aside: I wonder where the open borders advocates are now? They’d probably still find some way to blame Bush if it’s found that ISIS crossed our southern border and nuked an American city.

What a wonderful video to start my day. Did you see Andrea when Crissy said “Well, then we’re going to help them out.”?

She had to take off her glasses as if to hide her being incensed at his remark.

Classic.

Walter L. Newton on August 21, 2014 at 9:56 AM

I disagree. Andrea’s pretty old. She doesn’t need the “smart girl” glasses to give her authority. I don’t watch her much, but I’ve never seen her on camera with glasses. I think she was belatedly cued that she was back on the Brady Bunch screens. That’s why she sheepishly removed the glasses that she was using to read some material on the desk in front of her. She wasn’t incensed. She was being vain.

Matthews is an early adopter among the MSM. It is time to shift from supporting a lazy stupid black man toward the day when America elects its very first birth canal. Matthews will soon begin extolling the virtues of “smart” females who can lead us out of the mediocrity of 200+ years of being led by males.

If terrorists leaders know they are going to die, not their “followers”, but the leaders…kidnapping and killing would be at a minimum…only a few extremists (if any) would sacrifice their head for the head of a captive.

But the leaders are immune, and they don’t care about their followers, any more than the dems care about “black plight”.

Every leader is a leader because they make others sacrifice for them…Reagan made it clear, the leaders will be killed, not the guys who captured our men, but the leaders.

Hence, only the “kamikaze” terrorists were left…just ask Kadafi(Quadafi, Gaddafi or whatever)…

Anybody who suffered leg tingles or talked about pants creases back in 2008 should be disqualified from complaining about the President now. They made their beds, and we all have to lie in it. But having to listed to them all whine about it is just too damn much!

I bet ISIS would like to get their hands on some of those special forces guys who have been calling in the American airstrikes. These JTACs doubtless are protected by peshmerga, but I wonder who their reaction force is?

Please remember that the MSM have begun to tell you the troof now so they can reserve the right to pick up on the lying for Hillary in 2016
It’s all a cheap dodge, so don’t fall for it. Just try to remember,
they HATE you!!

The Media only gets it when something like this happens to one of their own. Then they finally start to get it. (Jeeze, that could have been me. Why are they such meanies?)

I’d be interested in his comments regarding Nick Berg’s death or the execution of Christians by ISIS. I’m betting he could have cared less. This event makes it more personal. Bummer that it wasn’t Matthews’ assignment instead of Foley’s.

Have a press conference and announce in exactly two weeks Mecca and Medina will be vaporized and will cease to exist. Call on the Arab countries to relocate everyone in the area as we know and they know they are powerless to resist. Let them know this is step one and other cities will be targeted and annihilated until the murderous death cult known as Islam renounces their stated goal of world domination.

That, says Morell, is not enough. He argues the relatively “small leadership” of the group must become the focus, along with reclaiming territory those leaders now control, and “that means capturing or killing them.”

I disagree. The focus should be on anyone and everyone who supports this small leadership. The objective here is to make sure the wider pubic never lets small leaderships like this gain power. The method of operation should be carpet-like with everyone supporting ISIS either directly by membership, harboring or supplying them or indirectly by not fighting or opposing them, getting the taste of MOABs and Daisy Cutters.

It is amazing how the media gets so excited for combat when of theirs walks into the middle of a war zone and gets whacked. In this case it is even worse, a infidel reporter roaming around the Land of the Ummah.

I disagree. The focus should be on anyone and everyone who supports this small leadership. The objective here is to make sure the wider pubic never lets small leaderships like this gain power. The method of operation should be carpet-like with everyone supporting ISIS either directly by membership, harboring or supplying them or indirectly by not fighting or opposing them, getting the taste of MOABs and Daisy Cutters.

Dusty on August 21, 2014 at 11:00 AM

I agree with this. The CIA is what allowed ISIS to gain power in Syria in the first place by trying to pull off their Assad removal plan and instead they got a good old fashioned Sunni Jihad.

I don’t trust the CIA, not because of what stupid leftist say about them, but because they are not good at fighting wars, etc. They need to stick to foreign intelligence operations…which is their function, and stop trying to build armies and other strange plots.

I disagree. The focus should be on anyone and everyone who supports this small leadership. The objective here is to make sure the wider pubic never lets small leaderships like this gain power. The method of operation should be carpet-like with everyone supporting ISIS either directly by membership, harboring or supplying them or indirectly by not fighting or opposing them, getting the taste of MOABs and Daisy Cutters.

Dusty on August 21, 2014 at 11:00 AM

This! When you kill a “leader” another takes his place. Kill all of them including the money men.

Did anyone see the interview with the parents of Foley? They said that revenge is not the answer and we should be compassionate. I am paraphrasing but they said the killers really believe in their cause and seemed to think that we should negotiate with them.

Did anyone see the interview with the parents of Foley? They said that revenge is not the answer and we should be compassionate. I am paraphrasing but they said the killers really believe in their cause and seemed to think that we should negotiate with them.
Vince on August 21, 2014 at 11:25 AM

Didn’t see that. I couldn’t bring myself to watch a media orgy of exploiting grieving parents. If what you say is true…

Then they are the archetypes of a civilization grown comfortable, fat and fearful. The fear of losing our internet service and our Royal Caribbean cruises and our imported kale and our health spa memberships and our Prius charging stations and our self-improvement sabbaticals in Ojai and the Dalles…in short, our fear of shattered illusions of a world that is orderly, neat and rational is so great that we are compelled to “understand” everyone, even the monsters who kill our own children.
If you cannot even muster some kind of dudgeon at the death of your own offspring, then you don’t deserve a future.

Honestly, I’m a little confused why people are making such a big deal about James Foley’s murder. The ISIL have killed thousands of civilians; many through means much more creative than beheading. Why all the attention on this one man?

I suppose media types are upset because Foley was one of them (a cooler, better looking version of them), but why should they suddenly expect the president to act differently?

Mahna Mahna on August 21, 2014 at 9:40 AM

Foley was an American citizen put in front of a camera and brutally murdered in an effort to change US policy in Iraq.